Category: Knife & Fork

Is there a more perfect food to suit all moods? Game’s on? Pizza. Heartbroken? Pizza. Celebrating a win? Pizza (but fancy and paired with prosecco). In this issue, we’re celebrating slices of all kinds—wood-fired, NY-style, and the kind you get at a local event out of the back of a food truck. Hope you’re hungry.

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MYSTIC PIZZA

Pi-Napo opens in former Fry’s Spring Station spot with a slice of secrecy

Four brothers opened Pi-Napo, a Neapolitan- style pizzeria on JPA in mid-August. The wood oven-fired pie parlor takes over the Fry’s Spring Station space, which has been vacant since last November.

Hunter Baseg, who received culinary training in Italy, fronts the venture for the four siblings, who originally hail from Turkey. Prior to opening, another Baseg brother spoke on the group’s behalf about the concept and what folks can expect.

“This is going to be a fully Italian, authentic pizzeria,” the brothers say. “We are importing the ingredients, including the flour and tomato sauce … from Italy.”

For pizza aficionados and Italophiles, alarm bells are likely going off. No, Pi-Napo is not a fully DOC-certified pizzeria, which requires techniques to be done in a specific way and all ingredients to follow strict guidelines per the Italian “denominazione di origine controllata,” or DOC. But the restaurant does offer 10 rotating pizza pies inspired by Neapolitan traditions, and imports Caputo double zero flour, mozzarella cheese, and tomato sauce approved by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana. 

According to the Basegs, Pi-Napo’s margherita pizza—a wood-fired crust topped simply with tomato sauce and dotted with mozzarella and basil—is a DOC pie; other fresh-from-the-oven offerings are white-based pizzas, pepperoni and sausage pizzas, veggie pizzas, and spicy diavola pizzas.

Pi-Napo has a streamlined menu to go along with its flatbreads, with salads to balance out meals and gelato to finish them off. Rounds pop out of the restaurant’s 1,100-degree oven in about 90 seconds, and the Basegs say diners can expect to wait no more than 10 minutes for their food—even during peak hours on weekends. Italian wine and beer, along with bottles and drafts from local craft breweries, join the usual selection of soft drinks on the beverage menu.

The Pi-Napo dining room, which the Basegs say is unrecognizable from the Fry’s Spring Station layout, seats around 100 people at the pizza bar and large picnic tables. Another 50 to 100 diners can enjoy their food on the restaurant’s large, highly-visible patio. 

’Za zealots visiting Pi-Napo place their order at the counter, take a number, sit down, and enjoy a view of the kitchen and imported pizza oven as they wait for their meal. “This is a family-oriented concept,” the Basegs say. “People can sit in front of the open kitchen to see how our pizzaiolos make everything.”

One of the downsides to the former Fry’s site, the Basegs admit, is a lack of parking. That’s something they’re working on with other local businesses, but in the meantime, they hope patrons can find street spots.

One thing you won’t find at Pi-Napo is anything Turkish.

“We’ve always been in the food business, and we are foodies,” the Basegs say. “Being from Turkey, we know Mediterranean food. And Charlottesville already has some really nice Turkish restaurants, so we are not going to go there.”—Shea Gibbs

Perfect combo

As if there weren’t enough excellent pizza options in town already, Richmond sent over one of its favorites: Billy Pie, Neapolitan-style pizzas from RVA carb king Billy Fallen, can be found hot and ready out of Random Row Brewing Co.’s stone oven. Choose from classics like margherita and pepperoni, or eat outside the pizza box with Calabrian chili pepper or ricotta and mushroom. Whatever you do, don’t forget a pint of Mosaic to wash it down.—Caite Hamilton

ROLL PIES

Three mobile operators lead the local traveling pizza brigade

There was a time when delivery pizza was king. But as access to in-home meals widened and consumer tastes changed, portable pizza had to roll with the punches. Enter the pizza trailer, high-heat ovens hitched to the back of trucks and toted wherever their owner may want. In Charlottesville, Blue Ridge Pizza Co. is rumbling into its 12th year anchoring the brewery, winery, and reception scene, while relative newcomers Crustworthy and Popitos are also on the streets with fresh-fired eats.

Blue Ridge Pizza Co. 

Jay and Melissa Johnson bought the Blue Ridge Pizza Co. trailer from its previous owner in 2020, just before the culinary world flipped upside down. After struggling through their first year, the couple settled into a catering groove serving receptions and parties while maintaining a steady presence on the pop-up scene.

“The thing that drives us is bringing people together over food,” Melissa says. “What better way than with pizza?”

To expand its catering operation, Blue Ridge Pizza Co. began offering linens and tables along with its margheritas and pepperonis. And with pizzas coming out of the Italian-imported brick oven in 90 seconds and eight to 10 pies going in at a time, Jay, Melissa, and their team can serve as many as 200 people in an hour.

At Blue Ridge pop-ups, customers can order individual pies from the menu or customize to their liking. Favorites are the Sicilian Baller (tomato base, shredded mozzarella, shaved Parmesan, Italian style meatballs, roasted red peppers, parsley) and Cider Fest (tomato, shredded mozz and cheddar, smoked pork, seasonal apples, grilled onions, balsamic glaze).

“We make our own dough—there’s not really too big of a secret to it, but we add a little bit of wheat flour to give it more texture,” Jay says. “It’s a two-day process.”

The Johnsons post the Blue Ridge Pizza Co. pop-up schedule to Instagram, Facebook, and their website.

Crustworthy

Tom Kelly began making sourdough before most folks knew a starter from a SCOBY. He started classes at the San Francisco Baking Institute in 2019, punched down on his job in finance, and quickly rose to head baker of his own small business.

In 2022, Kelly decided to take his recipe to the pizza oven, bought a wood-fired oven from upstate New York, and rolled out Crustworthy. 

Kelly tries to hew more or less traditionally Neapolitan, with his sourdough crust taking the offerings to what insiders now call neo-Neapolitan. “You don’t need a knife and fork,” Kelly says.

Crustworthy uses some local vendors for its flour, a Pennsylvania cheesemaker for its mozzarella, and local farms for as many veggies as possible. Stock Provisions provides the sausage.

Kelly says his bestseller is the reliable pepperoni pizza, with the classic margherita coming in second. Dig a little deeper on the menu and you’ll find outside-the-delivery-box offerings like the Butternut Blues with a squash base under mozzarella and caramelized onions.

The Crustworthy oven burns at 800 to 900 degrees, baking pies in about two minutes, and on a good night, the trailer pops out more than 150 12-inch rounds. Find out where Kelly and his seven employees will be next on Instagram or Facebook.

Popitos

Popitos graduated to a brick and mortar location in November 2022, but owners Lauren and Ray Zayas haven’t forgotten their mobile kitchen foundation. 

The Zayas did their first pop-up in 2020 after a winery client of Ray’s heard about the couple’s backyard pizza parties. By the 2021 season, Ray had dropped his job with Boar’s Head meats and cheeses, and Popitos went full tilt, serving more than 1,500 pies at a music festival and booking more winery events. In 2022, the Zayas started serving at King Family Vineyards and scouting for their physical location, which would soon open at Rio Hill Shopping Center.

Today, Popitos is still on the pop-up scene and offering full catering services. While not a trailer-based operation per se, Popitos totes its oven in a refrigerated truck along with all the ingredients for fresh ’za. At pop-ups, the Zayas and their team serve five flagship pizzas—cheese, pepperoni, the classic margherita, the Meatza with pep, sausage, and bacon, and the Hot Pig with bacon, jalapenos, and hot honey—along with one rotating option.

“Our oven’s name is Bella,” Lauren says. “We have three Bellas—they’re all sisters—so we can pop up in a few different locations.”

Popitos is working on a menu update, so in-store diners can soon expect hot sandwiches along with new appetizers and salads.—SG 

Take and bake

So you wanna make a pizza? You’ll need to start with a strong foundation: the dough. And, while we applaud your ambition, some things are better left to the experts. In Charlottesville, find the cheat code (aka pre-made dough) from trusted bakers at Mona Lisa Pasta, where you can pick up a ball of fresh dough (or a ready-made pie, if you want to throw in the towel entirely) to fire up your home-bake, and Feast!. The local grocery stocks dough from just around the corner at the OG, Albemarle Baking Company.—CH

Not-so-secret sauce

One thing that might scuttle your grand at-home pizza experiment? You’ve got the wrong sauce. Let Nona help. Nona’s Italian Cucina tomato sauce—which you can find at a whole host of local retailers, like Market Street Wine, Foods of All Nations, and The Batesville Market—blends San Marzano tomatoes and Italian herbs and spices, filling your own cucina with an aroma that might transport you straight to Milan. Quick! The pizza’s burning!—CH

LET THEM EAT BREAD

Baker Ryan Lee is all in for healthy and gluten-free

“I’ve had this gluten-free sourdough obsession since about 2015,” says baker Ryan Lee. Luckily for the rest of us, he’s turned his obsession into his own small business, The Homestead Oven, and keeps the community supplied with delicious varieties of organic GF goodness. 

Just taking a deep breath at the store/bakery on Rose Hill Drive delights the senses, lowers your blood pressure, and makes your stomach crave a slice with butter (or olive oil, or cream cheese, or almond butter, or turkey, avocado, and tomato with dill aioli). But then comes the hard part: making a decision. Five seed? Olive and rosemary? Jalapeño cheese? Varieties change by the day and the season.

Lee, a Chicago native, has been self-employed in various aspects of holistic health for two decades and has been eating gluten-free for most of that time. He was studying bee-keeping at a sanctuary in Floyd when he started to learn about sourdough baking. “I thought, ‘This is great,’” Lee recalls, “because most gluten-free sourdough is pretty awful. I started thinking how I could apply [what I was learning].” That led to five years of sourdough experimentation. “Finally, I got a loaf that my family and friends liked, and they all said I should start baking as a business.”

By then Lee and his family had moved to Charlottesville. When the COVID shut-down ended his practice as a hands-on therapist and he was looking for both activity and income, Lee started baking loaves to bring to the open-air City Market—and kept selling out. That led to more sales, word of mouth, and distribution through local specialty groceries. Finally, Lee outgrew his home kitchen and, with a lot of community support, opened The Homestead Oven in a small bakery that he shares with Stacy Miller’s GF venture Good Phyte Foods.

Lee sees offering healthy food “as an extension of the work I was doing, a desire to support and nourish people and to heal them. And [as a massage therapist] I’ve always loved working with my hands. It’s very similar—being present with the dough, you get to know it well. A sourdough starter is a living, breathing culture that has its own rhythms.”

Homestead Oven products are available at the store Tuesdays through Fridays; baking day is Wednesday, but they always have some loaves put away in the freezer (they freeze well and keep for three to four months). The bakery’s main outlet is Ix Market on Saturdays, but loaves are also available at small and organic groceries around Charlottesville. And you can order online for shipping around the country.

The latest good news: “Pizza Night has made its triumphant return,” Lee says with a smile. Once he had his sourdough recipe perfected, he developed a new obsession—quality gluten-free pizza. Again Lee started experimenting, trying to develop a GF pizza dough that would hold up to the toppings and work as both thin- and thick-crust. But offering pizzas was hard to do as the bread business took off, and Lee was still a one-man operation. Now that he has help—“an amazing staff”—Friday pizza nights are back on the website. 

The Oven offers three varieties of thick-crust pizza for pick-up; all are fresh, organic, gluten-free, and vegetarian (vegan cheese options are available) and use their homemade fire-roasted tomato sauce. To order, sign up on the Oven’s website for the weekly email with menu options; this is a small-batch operation, so order early—and then enjoy a healthy GF pizza. It might start your own obsession.­—Carol Diggs

Home slices

In Charlottesville, you could eat pizza every day of the week for two weeks and still have more slices to try. Consider this a pizzucket list.

Belmont Pizza & Pub

221 Carlton Rd.

Pizzas named after streets in Belmont, plus TVs (and wings) for game days. 

Christian’s Pizza

118 W. Main St., Downtown Mall, 100 14th St. NW, 601 Fifth St. SW, 3440 Seminole Trl.  

A classic choice for a quick bite, Christian’s offers slices from plain cheese to buffalo chicken.

Crozet Pizza

5794 Three Notched Rd., Crozet

National Geographic once said Crozet’s pies were the “best in the world.” Eat for yourself (any option is foolproof). 

Crozet Pizza at Buddhist Biker Bar

20 Elliewood Ave.

Charlottesville outpost for Crozet’s famous pies. 

Dino’s

946 Grady Ave. Suite F

Wood-oven artisan pizzas at Dairy Market. Build your own or try one of theirs (recommended: the Hello Sunshine). 

Dr. Ho’s Humble Pie

4916 Plank Rd., North Garden

Order a specialty pizza—like the Annie Oakley or the Don Juan—but don’t forget the (housemade) ranch for dipping.

End Zone Pizza

1764 Timberwood Blvd.

Try the All-star at this spot up 29N: two layers of dough, pepperoni, sausage, onions, mushrooms, green peppers and extra cheese.

Extreme Pizza

355 Merchant Walk Sq. Unit 200 (5th Street Station)

With names like The Mammoth, Mr. Pestato Head, and The Screamin’ Tomato, we’re ready to go to extremes.

Fabio’s NY Pizza

1551 E. High St.

A taste of the Big Apple (New York-style = hand-tossed, thin crust, wide slices) in Hooville. 

Lampo

205 Monticello  Rd.

Authentic Neapolitan slices from a pint-sized Belmont kitchen. Try the Hellboy (and don’t skip the zeppole for dessert). 

Marco’s Pizza

930 Olympia Dr.

Thin crust pizza sliced Greek-style (crossways into rectangles) for easy grabbing. 

Matchbox

2055 Bond St. (The Shops at Stonefield)

If you eschew the glu(ten), Matchbox has you covered with its gluten-sensitive cauliflower crusts on its 10-inch or 14-inch pies.

Mellow Mushroom

1321 W. Main St. 

Here it’s the Kosmic Karma: the pizza chain’s take on a margherita, with unexpected additions like sheep’s milk feta and a swirl of pesto.

Pi-Napo

2115 Jefferson Park Ave.

Four brothers creating 10 rotating wood oven-fired pizza pies inspired by Neapolitan traditions. Mama mia!

Sal’s Pizza Crozet

5752 Three Notch’d Rd., Crozet

A cult favorite for its NY-style pies.

Vita Nova

321 E. Main St., Downtown Mall

Grab a gourmet Italian slice to go and feel renewed (DYK Vita Nova means “new life”?). 

Vocelli Pizza

1857 Seminole Trail #29

Here you’ll find a pie that combines two of life’s greatest comforts: pizza and mac ‘n’ cheese (among more traditional options).

Is it a gourmet shop? A neighborhood grocery? A stop-by convenience store? A deli? A gift store? A coffee shop? A lunch spot? Foods of All Nations is all these things—and a Charlottesville institution that’s has been serving local customers for almost 70 years.

Stroll through Foods and you’ll find a range of quality produce and birthday cards, fresh sushi and baby gifts, a bottle of wine and dish soap, handmade chocolates and pet food, MarieBette baked goods and Caspari paper products. The store covers all these categories because its customer base runs the gamut, heavily influenced by its location next to UVA and on the west side’s main route in and out of town. 

“We see lots of UVA athletes and students, faculty on their way home from UVA, parents picking up their kids from St. Anne’s-Belfield, and then there’s the Farmington/Bellair/Boars Head crowd,” says Butch Brown, Foods’ interim store manager. The outdoor seating is mobbed during nice weather, especially on UVA football game days. And, he adds, “This is a food town.” 

Foods caters to foodies. Jams, jellies, and condiments from mustard to harissa fill one side of Aisle 4; Aisle 5 features foods from Greece, Indonesia, Asia, Spain and Mexico, the Middle East, India, and Africa. Toma, the sushi chef, draws a devoted clientele. The selection of wines, cheeses, and chocolate is amazing—many of them local (Foods stocks products from dozens of local businesses and “the widest selection of Virginia-made food and products” in town, says its website). Many customers come in every Sunday for their New York Times or Washington Post.

Foods was launched in 1955 by local businessmen Don King and Watt Jones; their first store, on Preston Avenue in Rose Hill, was called the Seven Day Shopping Center. A few years later, the store moved to Meadowbrook Shopping Center, and by 1970 it had settled at its current location in Ivy Square, with a new name. There was a metal sign on the roof, Brown recalls, proclaiming “Foods of All Nations: An Asset in Any Community,” although he doesn’t recall where that name or slogan came from.

A company associated with the UVA Foundation bought the Ivy Square Shopping Center in 2021, but Brown is confident that Foods will be around for a while yet. “The Foundation has been very supportive,” he says, including of the breakfast-and-lunch spot Foods operates at UVA’s North Fork Discovery Park.

That eatery is one of several adaptations that Foods has made over the years. A 1994 renovation expanded the back office and bakery space and turned the store’s original entry into a café offering tea, coffee, and pastries. The new entry and the space next to it became the flower and gift shop. In a nod to promoting local, that space is shared between Caspari products (the company is based here and its president is a Foods customer) and Alight Flower Farm in Keswick, which stocks the fresh flowers, indoor plants, and gifts. 

“Foods was our main market when we started the farm in 2016,” says Alight’s owner Liz Nabi, “so when their florist left in 2020, Foods asked us to take over.” When it comes to the gift selection, she says, “I pick things that I like and am drawn to—colorful, often nature-themed.” Shoppers find it convenient to pick up hostess gifts, Christmas stocking stuffers, baby gifts, and birthday presents. “Because Foods has such consistent repeat customers, we always want to offer something new,” Nabi says. 

While the store has adapted over the decades, one of its consistent features is its long-term staff. Brown has worked there for 35 years, Cindy Barker, the grocery manager, for 30 years, and deli section employees know customers by name—or by their favorite prepared food, specialty cheese, or cut of meat. 

One long-time customer says he and his wife have been shopping at Foods for 50 years plus. “They carry real specialty European stuff,” he says. “It’s the place to go in Charlottesville for that. And it’s like a coffee house or café in Paris, or an English pub—you see students, grad students, faculty, elderly people, all the locals.” 

Grocery manager Barker says she’s always looking for new products that her customers might be interested in: “I like to carry local products—our customers like to buy local—but I also try to get products from other countries.” Customers often ask her for specific products, and she does her best to oblige because she appreciates their loyalty. “We have the best customers ever,” she says.

And Foods’ clientele seems to reciprocate. The long-time customer we spoke with recalls picking a German hot chocolate mix off the shelf, but he couldn’t tell how much sugar was in it. “One of the staff came over and checked the German label ingredients for me—not many stores where that could happen,” he says.

Ready for an afternoon catch-up over a glass of wine, but not up for a bar? Looking for a quiet place to meet your friends downtown, but they like wine and you don’t drink alcohol? Feeling like a pot of tea and a good book on a rainy afternoon, but need to get out of the house?

Welcome to Ethos Wine and Tea.

This new spot on West Main, in the space that Guajiros Miami Eatery just vacated for its new joint on 10th Street, is a lovely mixture of congenial and Zen. As you walk in, you can look over the bookcase of wines and snacks for sale, as well as some used books for sampling. You can step up to the small curved wine bar, or find your table along the window or out on the patio—two-tops for intimate conversations, moveable for grouping. There’s a small menu of snacks, sandwiches, and sweets to help your energy match your conversation.  

Ethos Wine and Tea is the joint venture of two people with different backgrounds but like minds. Kylie Britt turned her degree in chemistry into a career in wine (which fits, if you think of winemaking as a chemical experiment) via the lab at Michael Shaps Wineworks and a stint as wine director at The Wool Factory. Tiffany Nguyen, who came to Charlottes­ville 16 years ago, juggled work in event-planning with raising four children (another form of event-planning, actually).

From different directions, Britt and Nguyen had developed an interest in building community through offering a gathering place. Britt says her growing desire to educate people about wines “got me dreaming of creating something more wine- and beverage-focused.” Nguyen discovered that her event skills were based on “wanting to gather people in a welcoming space—but I wasn’t ready to start a venture all on my own.” Then fate, in the shape of Charlottesville’s small-town network, stepped in. 

At last year’s Two Up, Wine Down Festival celebrating Virginia wines and winemakers, self-confessed foodie Nguyen was chatting with friends who happened to know Britt and her dreams of starting a wine-focused café.  The two started talking, one idea led to another, and by January 2024 the concept for Ethos was born. Through July and August, co-owners Britt and Nguyen eased into operation—opening a few days a week while they recruited staff and refined their offerings. By late summer, the spot was fully launched.

Britt, as wine and operations director, handles wine and staffing. The wine menu covers the full range (sparkling, white, rosé, red) and Britt plans to rotate the offerings about every six weeks. “I go for local, natural, and innovative wines,” she says. “I’m not super strict about organic, but I need the wine to be both good and good for the Earth.” She’s a fan of Virginia wines, obviously, but also particularly devoted to wines from the Shenandoah Valley … “or southwest France. I’m up for any wine with a good story.” (And to be inclusive, Ethos does carry a selection of draft and canned beers and sake).

The Ethos website describes Nguyen as “wearer of all hats.” While she enjoys wine, “I never knew that much about it,” she admits, but when she and Britt got talking about creating a gathering place, “I thought, ‘Why not tea?’ It’s a high-quality product, it’s complex, and [enjoying it] is a communal experience—something you can share.” Her tea menu will not rotate as often as Britt’s wines—tea is less seasonal than wine—but she will always offer a mix of black, green, herbal, and iced. “I’m keeping an eye out for local teas, which would mostly be herbal,” Nguyen says, but she will also offer locally produced kombuchas and sodas. There’s also brined plum soda from Vietnamese culture (“my family loves it,” she says)—refreshing, but definitely for those who have a taste for salty.

The foods menu offers snacks (nuts, olives, bread and butter) for noshing with your beverage, sweets from Splendora’s, and a mix of sandwiches for heartier appetites. Britt wants to feature local suppliers where possible, and she also plans to offer their kitchen for pop-ups from local chefs (“a kind of incubator”).  Eventually, she says, they want to offer the upstairs rooms as a space for private events.

Both owners keep coming back to their vision of Ethos as a community space. “This is a place for coming together,” says Britt, “whether it’s two friends or a date or a family, before dinner or after a movie or just an afternoon together.” Nguyen says it another way: “I’ve always wanted to gather people. When you walk in here, I want you to feel welcome.”

From the outside, Reid’s Super-Save Market looks like what it is—a mom-and-pop grocery and Charlottesville institution that’s been serving the neighborhoods along Preston Avenue for decades. The store was in the news last winter, as the community rallied to help it survive changing demographics, post-COVID supply challenges, and inflation hitting food prices hard. 

But for foodies in the know, Reid’s has always been a mecca for those who love their meats. What makes Reid’s stand out? It’s one of the few places in the Charlottesville area that has its own butchers. 

“We’ve always been known for our meat department,” says operations manager Billy Clements, who’s been working at Reid’s for more than 35 years (his wife Sue and her sister took over the store after their father’s death). “Most stores have moved away from fresh-cut meat. But here, that’s what draws people in.” 

The meat department takes up the store’s entire back wall, with packed shelves of carnivore’s delights. Its beef offerings run from minute steaks and ground-in-store hamburger to New York strip, T-bones, filets, and every cut in between; “we sell a lot of carne asada,” notes Sue. Long-time butchers Domingo (15-plus years at Reid’s) and Robert (at least 10 years) are happy to have customers call ahead to get their meat cut to order. “You want your steak two inches thick? No problem,” says Billy.

As for pork, Reid’s offers cuts from the head to the toes—literally; “we sell everything but the squeal,” in Billy’s words. If you’re craving pork loin or short ribs, great; or you can pick up some pig’s knuckles, hog maws, trotters, or pig’s ears. And when you can’t find a Kite’s Virginia ham anywhere in town, Reid’s stocks them.

If you’re shopping for chicken, look over a good 8 feet of shelf space, with everything from roasters to wings and feet (if you’re into dim sum). Sue Clements says the poultry comes pre-cut, but Reid’s packages all its meats in store.

Reid’s gets fresh fish delivered once a week, but its selection doesn’t compare to the acres of meat. One of the hard lessons Sue has learned is that while the grocery business used to be about options, “people don’t shop the way they used to.” She’s working to cut back to a smaller number of low-, mid-, and higher-price options for the staples her customers need. “We’re trying to serve all the genres of our neighborhood,” she says. The shelf labels letting shoppers know what’s eligible for SNAP benefits will stay, and so will the butchers behind the counter.

The Clementses are committed to keep meat and produce the heart of the store, which serves an area of town that would otherwise be a food desert. And it’s appreciated. Long-time customer Norman Lamson, who has shopped at Reid’s for more than 30 years, says, “I live five minutes away—I would rather get everything there than [run around town] trying to save money. And Reid’s has the best meats in town.”

Gordon Sutton agrees. Sutton is president of Tiger Fuel, which owns The Market across the street from Reid’s and donated to the GoFundMe page customers set up to support the store. 

“I live downtown, and I shop there all the time,” he says. “The people are really friendly and service-oriented. It’s one of the few places that has an old-school butcher.” Sutton especially appreciates that service; he’s a hunter, and says he stops by Reid’s to get fat trimmings for his ground venison.

They say everything moves slower in the islands. But that does not include chef Jonathan Wright Jr., who’s been serving Caribbean fusion out of his 434th Street restaurant and catering group since 2020. From his first jobs in fast food, to early mornings at City Market, to long days in a manufacturing plant, Wright’s been on the move since he was a teenager. 

The hard work paid off on January 7, when he officially launched his Caribbean concept in a permanent Dairy Market location. Last month, the chef took some time out of his busy day to tell Knife & Fork all about the move, his family’s culinary traditions, and what’s next.

Knife & Fork: How has business been in your first few months?

Wright: It’s been really consistent for the last five weeks. I’ve seen some great new faces along with my regulars from the last three years. I started this concept at the City Market in 2020, right in the middle of the pandemic.

Where were you before that?

For the past 20-plus years I’ve been in a lot of kitchens around Charlottesville. I started when I was 14 or 15 in fast food restaurants and just worked my way up the charts. After fast food, it was Red Robin and Ruby Tuesday. Then I moved to Farmington Country Club and Boar’s Head. Then in 2019, I took a job in advanced manufacturing at Emerson. I was succeeding in that, but it got slow, and I was laid off.

That’s an impressive resume.

I’m mostly self-taught, but there were most definitely some great people along the way. The other piece of my background is that my grandmother was the head chef at Martha Jefferson House in the ’80s and ’90s. She also worked at a restaurant called La Hacienda in Charlottesville. According to some people, she was the first woman head chef in any kitchen in town. She died in 1990, three years before I was born, but we always had that family tradition of gathering in the kitchen—from her and from my other grandmother.

What got you into Caribbean food?

I was born and raised in Earlysville. My dad’s side is from West Virginia, and my mom’s is from here. I saw that we didn’t have that type of cuisine here, and I knew I was capable of cooking it well. Caribbean flavors and cuisines inspire me. I love traveling to the Caribbean, and every time I go I discover something new. I took the Caribbean main dishes and a lot of the curries and island spice and incorporated that with Southern American side dishes like mac and cheese and greens. That’s where the “Virginia twist” on my sign comes in.

How does the Dairy Market scene compare to what you had been doing?

It’s actually the same type of setting but with no 4am wake up calls and a parking lot. The move wasn’t really in my plans, but people wanted it. Demand was high, people got familiar with the food, the catering grew, I contracted with UVA for some things and met a lot of good people there. Everyone kept asking: “When are you going to have a location?” Dairy Market reached out and wanted to know if I wanted to be a vendor. We had a nice sit down, I cooked some food, and they loved it. But yeah, it’s a great environment. This is my first place, but they treat me like I am home. The owners and other vendors have greeted me with nothing but love and respect.

What are some of your favorites and bestsellers?

The seafood dishes—those are my favorite. The coconut curry seafood platter consists of whatever fresh fish I have as far as market price and availability. Right now, it’s red snapper, which is pan seared with shrimp and crab cake, mixed with the coconut curry sauce and accompanied by the island rice. But the number-one seller is oxtail. I’ve run through about 140 pounds of oxtail in a six-day week, and that was during the slow season. People also love the jerk dishes.

How is the oxtail prepared?

We season the oxtails and marinate them overnight, pan sear them, then after that, we slow braise them in the oven. Then I make a nice savory coconut gravy—a brown gravy with coconut and pineapple. They go absolutely perfectly together. That’s served with plantains and red beans and rice.

What’s the future look like for 434th Street and Chef Wright?

I’m very passionate about what I do. This is just a bonus; the thing that built the company the most is the catering. We did six weddings last year and want to do more this year, but it’s sporadic. At the Dairy Market, I have a staff of four, one full-time and three part-time. They’re all from different nationalities, genders, and ages. They have so much versatility. We’ve become a really strong team.

Charlottesville is well known as a foodie destination—not only because of its vibrant restaurant scene, but because of the well-loved gourmet groceries that make cooking at home (across myriad cultures and cuisines) easy and interesting. Put these family-owned international grocers—with ingredients from Africa, India, China, and beyond—on your must-visit list, and let the owners transport your plate and stretch your palate.

When Fred and Fatima moved to Charlottesville, none of the grocery stores had what they were looking for. Originally from Ghana, the couple couldn’t find any of the ingredients they needed to make the authentic, West African cuisine that tasted like home. 

Their only option was packing up the car and road-tripping hours away to Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and sometimes even New York to stock up on goods from African markets. With young kids, the drive got old fast. 

“We were tired of traveling two and a half, four hours, sometimes more to get our produce and food,” says Fatima. “We had to take our kids and we were just tired of doing that. Looking around this community, we wanted to bring things—to bring a bit of us to the community.” 

In 2012, the couple opened African Market Place—their way of bringing home to Charlottesville. Housed in a small end-cap space on Commonwealth Drive, the shop’s shelves are full of fresh flavors, produce, and foods from all across Africa. 

One of Market Place’s largest sections is dedicated to grains. According to Fatima, African breads are a must-try. 

“They’re different, not as much sugar or preservatives,” she says. “Better.”

Beginners can start with a loaf of agege bread, a dense white bread from Nigeria, or a bag of Effie’s International pull-off rolls, made by an authentic African bakery in Alexandria. If you’re interested in getting your hands dirty and kneading your own dough, there are plenty of flour options to choose from. 

Maskal teff flour can be used to make injera, a spongy Ethiopian flatbread, and there’s an entire shelf dedicated to varieties of fufu flour. 

One of West Africa’s best-known dishes, fufu is a pounded, starchy side dish that can be made with cassava, plantain, cocoyam, and more. It pairs well with flavorful meats or soups.

If you’re new to African cuisine, or any international cuisine, shopping for it for the first time can be overwhelming. Soup is a great place to start.

“When it’s cold, we Africans like soup,” says Fatima. “We can have palm soup, peanut soup, soup with cassava leaves. There’s a lot of different soups, it depends.”

Just come in with a general idea of what you want, and Fatima can help you round out your list. Stock up on the essentials, like palm oil (“We use it for everything,” she says.), herbs, spices, and Nina Groundnut Paste (African peanut butter, “No additives, it’s better.”), then pick your meats and veggies. There’s smoked dried fish, flavorful bone-in meats (“It has hard bones, it doesn’t fall apart in soup.”), jumbo snails (“Steam them first.”), massive African yams, and fresh cassava. It’s hearty, starchy, and, in the words of Fatima, “different. It’s better.”

On the way out, grab a bag of plantain chips or a box of McVitie’s Digestives for the road, and make sure to snag a bar or two of African black soap. It’s just better. 

Is there anything more satisfying than a simmering bowl of homemade curry or masala? 

We don’t think so. And Express Grocery Store probably has all the authentic ingredients you need to make a delicious meal inspired by your choice of South Asian cuisine. 

The family-owned shop has been around for a while, but its current owner, Prashanna Sangroula, took over two years ago. Despite running a new business in the middle of the pandemic, Sangroula has been slowly working on expanding the shop’s offerings with the help of family member and longtime business partner Utsav Gautam.

“When we moved here there wasn’t really a store like it,” says Gautam. “We drove to northern Virginia to get our supplies.”

To save others from making the trek north, Express regularly gets shipments of fresh produce, and frequently rotates its stock to keep things novel for customers, who can find items from India, Nepal, Pakistan, and more. 

If you have a hankering for curry, make sure to buy dal, rice, spices, paratha (an Indian flatbread), and your choice of meat—chicken, bone-in lamb, or goat, when it’s in stock. There are also plenty of authentic paneers if you want to go vegetarian, and seasonal veggies like pumpkin leaf, bathua saag, tori ko saag, and rukh tamatar.

If it’s a frozen dinner kind of night, Express has you covered. Gautam keeps multiple freezers full of every kind of samosa imaginable, plus mattar paneer, chicken tikka masala, and pakoras. 

Finish up your shopping with something to sip on and a sweet treat. Express stocks a nice selection of wines and Indian beers, including Taj Mahal, Flying Horse, and Haywards 5000, and has an impressive dessert selection. Sate your sweet tooth with some mango or falooda ice cream, chikki peanut brittle, punjabi cookies, or chocolate burfees. 

The sweets—and the snacks—are favorites of UVA students, who get free delivery within a five-mile radius. 

Gautam recommends the Kurkure chips, which come in flavors like masala munch, chilli chatka, and naughty tomato, and Maggi instant noodles, Express’ best-selling item. 

Depending on the time of year, you might also find seasonal goods. In October, you can find everything you need for a Diwali celebration, including diyas, incense, and makhamali mala. 

Milestone achievement

 C’ville Oriental celebrates 30 years 

In 1994, Xiaonan Wang and Hui Qiao moved to Charlottesville from California. 

In California, the Asian community makes up more than 15 percent of the population, and Asian grocery stores are abundant. In Charlottesville in the ’90s—not so much. 

“We realized we couldn’t find any Asian grocery stores,” says Qiao. “Coming from California, that was so inconvenient to the Asian community especially. We had to go to Richmond or D.C. to get our items.”

Wang and Qiao would drive far away to get basic items like vinegar and soy sauce. It’s an unfair experience that’s all too familiar for people of international cultures who move to C’ville. Qiao and Wang immediately started thinking of opening their own store.

“I just thought that this is a must,” says Qiao. 

That same year they opened C’ville Oriental. Qiao had just started a job at UVA, so Wang took on the day-to-day operations. 

“We started in a much smaller space and we just kept expanding and moved three times until our current location at Seminole Trail,” says Qiao. “This is our biggest space so far, and we like the location because of the parking and the space inside.”

The inside is a treasure trove of goods from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Thailand, India, and more. It’s easy to get lost in the aisles of savory sauces, sweet snacks, and fresh produce. 

“[Customers] really like our fresh vegetables,” says Qiao. “We have about 20 different kinds of greens. It’s healthy, easy to cook, and cheap.”

Bok Choy, taro, and bean sprouts are a few of the veggies you’ll find, alongside plenty of meat and tofu options, and fun snacks like Pocky and mochi. Every week, Wang makes the drive to D.C. to pick up items a supplier can’t ship to Charlottesville. 

“Originally, the store was for the Asian community, but now we have more and more Americans come in,” says Qiao. “Because of the University town, a lot of people have exposure to international cultures. They want to learn how to eat and cook.”

This year marks 30 years in business. Qiao, who recently retired from her UVA position, is now helping out more and more at the shop, which is open 365 days a year. 

Qiao and Wang know first-hand how hard it can be to find specialty items, so they want to be there for C’ville residents whenever they need anything, big or small. 

“We are very happy that we are able to help the community,” says Qiao. “We feel like we are a part of their life. We don’t have any days off because we feel that’s how important grocery stores are.”

Grand experiment

Mohammed Alazazi is taking his grocery biz one step at a time

Small business owners push hard to keep the gears of entrepreneurship moving and oiled, and Mohammed Alazazi is no exception. 

Originally from Iraq, Alazazi doesn’t have a background in the grocery business—encouragement from his culture, wife, sons, and in-laws inspired him to represent and sell the food that feeds them. Hummus Grocery is his first business venture, and he spent a long time debating whether or not to open it. 

“My wife supports me so much,” Alazazi says. “Without her, I wouldn’t be able to open this business—or do anything else.”

Alazazi brings most of the inventory from Michigan, where larger Middle Eastern distributors are thriving. He makes the trip—a 10-hour drive one way—once a month. 

Hummus Grocery has been open for two years, selling varieties of Middle Eastern beverages, tahinis, spices, dry goods,
frozen items. But the real showstoppers are his fresh hummus (obviously) and tabbouleh, which he plans to eventually expand into a full menu. 

“Once I get the proper licenses I want to start selling sandwiches, like shawarma and falafel,” he says.

Considering the cost of commercial sinks and other equipment necessities as well as the time for a kitchen buildout, Alazizi is taking the time to learn about his business in the Charlottesville economy. “I’m going to start step by step,” he says. “I’m giving it my best.”—Christina Martin

Andrew Pearson is Virginia born and bred, and always thought he would return to his home state one day. When the COVID shutdown found him and his family quarantined in Birmingham, Alabama, he decided it was time. “I’ve always had my Virginia bag packed,” he says, and soon the family had bought a farm between Gordonsville and Cismont.

Soon after, on a stroll through Gordonsville, Pearson passed the recently closed Restaurant Rochambeau, once a highly regarded draw for the town. “I looked in and saw the tables were still set,” he says. “Everyone here wanted the restaurant to reopen.” With a background in hospitality as well as farming—while he was growing up, his family owned an inn that his grandmother ran—Pearson had a conversation with the restaurant’s owners. 

“I expected a long discussion,” Pearson admits, “but within 10 minutes Jacqueline Gupton and her husband said okay.” His new restaurant opened a month later, in August 2023, under a new name: Près des Prés, meaning “near the meadows” (the Pearsons’ farm is called The Meadows).

Pearson was drawn to the idea of bringing fine French dining back to the Main Street site of Rochambeau and its nationally known predecessor, Pomme. While many people may think French dining features stereotypical French dishes, he says, “French cooking is more about ingredients and techniques.” Beyond that, he was really excited at the prospect of “doing something good for Gordonsville and the wider community.”

Luckily for his suddenly short timeline, Pearson found the perfect chef close to home. Abby Duck, a graduate of Johnson & Wales University’s noted culinary program, had worked her way up to chef du cuisine at the Tasting Counter outside Boston, and when she decided to move closer to her family in this area, she was his first choice to help him launch the new venture.

When it comes to preparing French food, Duck says she starts “with what I would like to eat, and then make it French. I like to use lesser-known French ingredients, things that people aren’t as familiar with.” Working from a list of seasonal vegetables, Duck designs each month’s menu to include three vegetarian dishes and three protein-based dishes. She looks for ingredients from the area (including from the Pearsons’ farm and garden), and is working on building relationships with local suppliers. For now, Duck makes every dish from scratch, including the desserts: “I do all the baking, except the bread—that’s from Albemarle Baking Company.”  

For now, Près des Prés is open for dinner Wednesdays through Saturdays. Service is limited to 10 tables or a maximum of 26 guests, with a three-course prix fixe menu of the month posted on the restaurant’s website. As an example of Duck’s mix of tradition and originality, November’s menu featured pistachio soup with squash, crème fraîche, and tuile or Brussels sprouts with yam, lemon, Dijon, and blood orange as starters, followed by fresh spaghetti with yuzu, chive, sea urchin roe, and cream or pommes darphin with chili oil, crème fraiche, and watercress. Entrées were scallops with risotto, hazelnut, sage, and pomegranate, or venison with sunchoke, green peppercorns, and broccoli rabe. 

“We want dining here to be an experience,” says Pearson—but not the intimidating one some people associate with fine French cuisine. The restaurant still looks much like Rochambeau, warm and inviting, a place you want to linger over a meal. Families are welcome, says Pearson, who makes sure to be a visible host. 

Reactions from patrons have been very positive, says the new restaurateur: “It’s a real honor to have people come from D.C., Fredericksburg, and Richmond. We even had a couple come here as their honeymoon treat.” In response to that positive interest, the restaurant will be open for one Sunday this year, on December 31, for a special five-course New Year’s Eve tasting menu.

But Pearson also wants Près des Prés to be a gathering point for locals, and he hopes to be open more days as the business settles in, and wants more people to stop by the restaurant’s bar (open from 5 to 9 every night the restaurant is open). Duck’s bar menu includes crêpes, frites, and French onion soup (naturellement!), as well as desserts and a grazing board. A recent addition is the newest gourmet treat: artisan tinned fish. It goes very well with Champagne.